


Try, Try Again

by eriah211



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Anomaly (Primeval), Dinosaurs, Getting Back Together, M/M, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-11
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:08:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 11
Words: 15,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24131113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eriah211/pseuds/eriah211
Summary: Jon Lyle (OC belongs to fredbassett) has been part of the Anomaly project for some time and is now in a relationship with James Lester, but after something goes wrong on a mission, Lyle realizes sometimes you can’t go back home.
Relationships: James Lester/Jon Lyle
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Really old fic, finally reposted on AO3. Thanks to the wonderful lukadreaming for beta duty, patience and cheering skills. Also big thanks to fredbassett for letting me play with her OC, Lyle, and for the great Lester/Lyle background she has written.  
> First long fic ever,written thanks to the cheering and help of the people mentioned above and some others. Previously posted on livejournal.

He would never admit it in public, but he was starting to lose hope when the damned anomaly decided to finally reappear. It had only been six days since it closed, trapping them on the other side, but it had felt like a month.

Lyle kicked Connor’s leg to stop his yell of joy and surveyed the area once more to make sure there wasn’t imminent danger around. They had had to take shelter in a forest next to the anomaly site after the first incidents that had cost them the lives of two soldiers. The area seemed to be, Connor had explained, a busy hunting ground: a lake, a watering hole for herbivores that attracted predators and therefore carrion-eating beasts of all sizes. Basically, they had landed on a buffet table. Such luck for a quick trip to gather “useful information”.

He remembered Lester rolling his eyes at Professor Cutter’s words, but he had agreed after all. Lester must be so pissed off by now, Lyle thought, a soft smile playing on his lips. Poor Professor Cutter, James could be really harsh when angry and it was worse when he was angry and concerned. Lyle knew he would try to hide his concern under a double layer of sharp retorts, as if showing concern was indecorous behaviour. James Lester was an uptight civil servant, but he was his uptight civil servant and Lyle loved him anyway, even when he threatened to buy tickets for the opera, like he'd done just a week ago.

As far as Lyle could see from their place in the shelter, it was all clear, only a few veggies by the lake (tenontosaurus or something like that, according to Connor). After leaving the forest they would have to run for the anomaly since it was in the open, but it wasn’t too far away. Surely their bad luck had to take a break sometime, hadn’t it? If only his thumbs weren’t pricking like that.

"OK, that’s our exit, lads. Take your guns and stay alert. Connor, follow me. Johnson, at the back."

Lyle headed the march, scanning their surroundings and when he reached the limit of the forest, he stopped and looked at the remains of the squad: two soldiers still in one piece and a brave geek, a bit shaken, but unharmed.

"Now we will just have to get a move on to reach the anomaly and we will be home. Get your guns ready and keep moving."

After one last look around, they rushed to the anomaly. Lyle kept an eye on the nearby forest, but all looked quiet. They were only halfway through when a sound to his left startled him: the creatures by the lake were running away and Lyle didn’t think it had nothing to do with them.

That was when Johnson started shooting.

"They are following us! Watch out!"

Lyle saw two creatures and recognized them immediately: deinonychus. Not their lucky day, then.

"Morris, take the civilian to the anomaly!" Lyle shouted.

"But…" Connor started to protest.

"Not this time, Connor, just go!"

Morris pushed Connor forward and they started running. Lyle took a look back again: one of the creatures was down and the other was moving around, keeping good space between them, but never standing still.

“Little bugger," Lyle muttered and started shooting. He remembered Connor had told them many times the deinonychus were smart and fast, and what else did he say?

A sudden yell of pain at his back triggered his memory: they hunted in packs. Another three creatures were attacking from the right side of their path and one had Morris down. The fucking beasts had been circling them and they didn’t even notice.

Johnson had already shot down the one at the back and another one was busy, Lyle noticed with a sickening feeling, but the other two creatures were approaching Connor, who was trying to keep them at bay, so he ran to him and started shooting, hoping Johnson would follow hot on his heels

"Keep moving towards the anomaly, Connor!"

There were more deinonychus coming from the limits of the forest, so their only chance was to keep running forward and reach the anomaly, but it was hard to make a fast run when you couldn’t turn your back on the creatures. Lyle moved forward a few metres and then stopped and fired, covering Johnson’s run. He was worried about Connor, but as long as he could hear the boy shooting, it would be OK. It had to be, he couldn’t bear the thought of losing Connor too.

A few more metres and Connor was already about to reach the anomaly. He turned back, still shooting, and yelled at them.

"Come on! It’s not far now!"

Still running, Lyle saw the young man’s face turn from hope to despair and turned around to see Johnson falling to the ground, a big deinonychus getting closer.

Swearing, Lyle lunged forward and opened fire on the creature. He shot it down, but another one took the chance and threw itself upon Johnson, who was still trying to stand up. The deinonychus slashed his chest, but the soldier managed to aim and fire, shooting the creature down.

Lyle reached Johnson and helped him up. The man fought to keep moving, but he was mostly hanging from Lyle’s shoulder. They weren’t going to make it. Damn, he thought, he wouldn’t have the chance to tell Lester that yes, he would love to go with him to the opera or the ballet or to buy napkins, it didn’t matter where.

Now was not the time to be sappy, Lyle scolded himself. The two men started moving towards the anomaly and they saw Connor holding firmly the automatic and shooting to cover them. The kid was good at that, Lyle thought; he would have to praise him later. If they made it home safely, of course.

Lyle kept shooting as far as he could, trying to keep the dinosaurs at bay, and he noticed that Johnson had managed to get out a small gun and he was shooting as well. His men were big damn fighters, he thought proudly.

They finally made it to Connor’s place by the anomaly, still shooting with everything they had, and Lyle smiled gratefully at him.

"Hey," Connor said, grinning as well. "Lester would be really pissed off at me if I let you die here."

They still weren’t out of trouble, he knew it. The creatures still could follow them through the anomaly, but the chances for them were better now. They could keep them at bay from the other side. Anyway, he hoped the ARC team would have detected the anomaly by then, and reinforcements would be very welcome.

A few steps more and Lyle felt the paving under his feet and saw the dirty warehouse where they'd come from. And soldiers, quite a few of them, guns ready and already taking good care of the situation. In a blink there was somebody by his side, checking Johnson’s injuries and he could finally take a deep breath.

In a few minutes they blocked the anomaly and Lyle sat on the floor with his back to the wall, watching Connor, who was still on an adrenaline rush, pacing back and forth. Then he saw Ryan coming closer, followed by Lester and his heart skipped a beat. Lyle got up and grinned at Lester, fighting the urge to take a step forward and kiss him senseless. All he got was a blank stare in response. Slightly confused, Lyle looked at Ryan, who was patting Connor’s shoulder, but found no recognition in his friend’s eyes.

"Well, Mr. Temple," Lester said icily, "next time you decide to go on your own on a field trip I hope you will reconsider it after the present experience. Although I see you managed to find some new friends there…"

Lester turned and stared coldly at Lyle. "Who are you and how did you find out about the anomalies? Your friend will have to make a visit to the hospital, but you will have a lot of explaining to do."


	2. Chapter 2

Everything looked almost the same, which was probably the worst thing about this whole mess. The ARC was in the same building and the inside – well, the part that he has been allowed to see on his way in - was more or less the way he remembered it. Definitely the interrogation room was as grey and impersonal as it had been before.

Lyle had spent the last three hours there, answering a battery of questions, while trying to get his head around the idea that none of the ARC staff knew him, or even had heard of him before. Lyle could understand that the team was acting with caution, given the situation (unidentified armed person in an anomaly site), but the almost hostile treatment was getting on his nerves. Ryan's coldness had hurt, but Lester’s indifference had left a tight knot in his chest that hadn’t disappeared yet.

He took a look at his watch. It had been 30 minutes since Ryan had left without answering any of his questions (how was Johnson? where was Connor? what was happening?) and he was not a patient man. Lyle was considering taking a more direct approach to the situation when the door opened and Lester came in.

The knot in his chest tightened and suddenly Lyle didn’t know what to do with his hands so he just sat back in the chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

Lester, wearing an immaculate suit and a hideous tie, sat deliberately across the table and opened a file he had brought in an expensive-looking briefcase. Only then did Lester look him in the eye.

"We checked your identity with the Ministry of Defence and they have sent us your profile, quite reluctantly, if I may add. Lyle, Jon. Sorry, no rank of lieutenant here." Lester started reading flippantly. "Most of the information you provided is accurate. As it seems, you indeed took part in the Gulf War, but … you are on the casualty list of one of the last missions the troops had there."

Disbelief must have been written all over his face, because Lester just handed him one of the papers from the folder. That was when Lyle noticed the ring shining on Lester’s finger. The situation was getting weirder and weirder, he thought, even more confused. Lyle took a look at the paper: it was a death certificate. His death certificate.

"Mr. Temple has confirmed your story and he has assured me, quite vehemently, that you are an indispensable part of the ARC team. He," Lester sighed, "has also spent the last hour babbling about timeline changes caused by some sort of interference in past events. His explanations tend to be quite incoherent when he is in an over-excited mood. Professor Cutter hasn’t been much help either since he has joined in the crazy talk. You don’t happen to know somebody named Claudia Brown, do you?"

Lyle was still a bit confused, but the name did ring a bell, he just couldn’t place where or when he had heard it.

“No, not really."

"It doesn’t matter, I will wait for the report." Lester said indifferently while he put the folder back in his briefcase. "There are some other facts that our friends of the Ministry would like to check with you so you will have to answer their questions too before we can consider this over."

Oh, just great, Lyle thought, but before he could protest the door opened and Connor stepped inside looking quite anxious.

"Anyway," Lester said while he walked to the door. "Mr. Temple has been very insistent that he wanted to see you so we will leave you two together a few minutes before we resume the inquiries. It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr Lyle."

Without a glance back Lester left the room, leaving a very confused Lyle behind.

As soon as the door closed Connor started talking, but Lyle was still shocked and Connor’s excitement didn’t help at all. Hell, he thought, Lester was right; he looks like a kid on a sugar rush. He needed to make him slow down if he wanted to make any sense of it.

"OK, Connor. Connor!" Lyle had to raise his voice to catch Connor’s attention "Sit down here and start again, please."

"Professor Cutter talked to me about this, but I’ve never…" Connor sat down and leaned on the table. "Just think about it, how many times could it have happened without anybody noticing it? The possibilities are endless…"

"What? What did happen, Connor? You still haven’t told me."

"The timeline! The anomalies! It’s the only explanation. Some things that happened in our timeline haven’t happened in our current one. Somebody somehow crossed an anomaly and changed the past. That’s why our current timeline is different."

"You mean that somebody did this on purpose?" Lyle asked already thinking of a very painful way of killing Helen Cutter.

"No, it could have been totally accidental. It could even have been an animal that came across an anomaly or just the other way around, maybe somebody or something left its time when it was supposed to stay there and…"

Lyle let Connor babble while he tried to wrap his head around the idea. A new timeline. The past had changed. If he hadn’t spent the last years chasing dinosaurs and other creatures, he would have said it was madness, but he had already seen too much.

"A butterfly effect?" Lyle interrupted Connor.

"Err, sort of. It has to have been a very small incident and not very far in the past, otherwise the changes would be huge and, as far as I have seen, everything seems more or less the same."

"Except for me being dead." Lyle pointed.

That seemed to deflate Connor’s excitement at once.

“Yes, of course," Connor continued more calmly. "I know Professor Cutter and Abby are still part of the team. I haven’t been able to see Abby, though. And of course, Helen is still around and causing problems. Captain Ryan, Lester, the ARC… almost everything seems the same."

"Almost?" Lyle asked suspiciously.

"Well…" Connor hesitated. "There are many restricted areas that weren’t here before. There are a lot more SF around and a hell of a lot of new faces. Also, when I was in the infirmary I didn’t see Ditzy."

"Maybe he wasn’t around today…"

"No, when I asked about him people looked at me as if I was a bit mental, especially Lester." Connor hesitated again and fidgeted nervously in his chair. "Did he say something to you? When he came to see you, did you…?"

"Connor, the man doesn’t even know me." The words left a taste like ashes in Lyle’s mouth.

There was an awkward silence before Connor dared to speak again.“I’m terrified about meeting Abby, you know?" Connor started in a serious tone Lyle wasn’t used to hearing from the young man. "I know she knows me, we still work together in the team, but, what if in this timeline she doesn’t like me? What if she thinks I’m a nuisance? They told me she is with Stephen on a mission. Stephen! What if they are together? What if…"

"Calm down, lad," Lyle said. "How would she think that? Of course she still likes you. She is Abby after all, isn’t she?"

"I'm not so sure about that. Different timeline, different past, remember? Her childhood, her experiences… There could have been so many changes…"

"But you said the changes in this timeline weren’t too serious, didn't you?" Lyle asked worriedly.

"Well, we still won WWII and the House of Lords wasn’t blown up, but I still haven’t had time to check exhaustively and the possibilities scare the hell out of me."

Lyle remembered Lester’s uninterested stare and the ring on his finger. This man had never met him before; he had never fallen in love with him. Hell, it looked like he was still happily married. Lyle shuddered as the realization dawned on him; he had lost his lover and there was no home to come back to.


	3. Chapter 3

It took ages to finish the questioning. The questioning and the second medical examination was followed by a very boring lecture about classified information and state secrets. Ryan finally had been kind enough to tell him about Johnson’s condition: he was going to have to stay quite a few days in hospital, but he would be ok. That helped to ease some of the tension that had taken over him in the last hours, but Lyle still felt exhausted, both physically and mentally, and he just wanted to go home and take a shower. Then it hit him again: he didn’t have a home to come back to, he was dead. Fortunately for him, the Government weren't planning to throw him on the streets and they were kindly going to let him use a safe house, probably just so they could keep an eye on him.

Lyle wondered how Lester would react if he knew he had the keys to his flat. Well, that he had had the keys, because Lyle had left them in his locker and now it was somebody else’s locker and his things were gone. Not that it mattered much, because probably Lester didn’t live in the same flat any more. God, his head hurt, he was going to need some time to get used to this craziness. He needed to rest, sleep for a while and maybe, just maybe, tomorrow his head would be clearer.

He was waiting to be led to the apartment when Connor approached him with a tired smile.

“I have heard you have somewhere to stay,” he said. “I would have offered you my place, but I didn’t know if it was big enough or where it was anyway. I have had to hack my own profile to get the address and see that it’s still Abby’s old place,” Connor whispered. “You wouldn’t believe the security system they have installed here. It’s a bit weak, if you ask me.”

“It’s OK, Connor. I just want to rest, anywhere without prehistoric creatures lurking around would be fine. Hell, probably a bench in the park would be enough if I could keep drunks and pigeons away for a while.”

Lyle was about to add something when he saw Connor’s friendly smile falter and a shocked expression appear on his face. Worried, Lyle followed Connor’s gaze and gasped as he saw Lester coming down the stairs followed closely by Oliver Leek. The skinny creep was prowling around Lester with his ever-present nervous smile and just the sight of it made Lyle’s blood boil.

That bastard had almost got Lester killed. He couldn’t forget the panic he had felt when they'd come back to the ARC and seen the blood and the remains of the future predator, but they hadn't been able to find Lester. Ditzy had been the one who took him by his arm and told him that Lester was just slightly injured and that he would find him in the infirmary. Now there was no sign of good pal Ditzy, but Leek was still around. That was definitely not good news.

Lyle looked at Connor and he saw his own disgust and shock mirrored in the young man’s face.

“So, what? In this timeline Leek is not a traitor and a disgusting slug?” Lyle whispered to Connor. “Or haven’t they discovered yet that the guy works for Helen?”

“I-I don’t know what to say, I hope it’s the first option.” Connor looked a bit scared.

Lyle thought he was probably remembering how close it had been to a disaster the last time they had underestimated Oliver Leek.

“I hope it is too,” Lyle grunted, “but I’m not going to take any risk.”

He waited impatiently by Connor’s side, keeping his eyes on Leek the whole time. Lyle examined his gestures and his behaviour, trying to find something that would tell him if this was the same man he knew. His thumbs weren’t prickling and that should be reassuring, but his sixth sense could be a bit dull because of the timeline change.

When a man in civvies (but armed, he noted) came to pick him up, Lyle put a hand on Connor’s shoulder and leaned towards him lightly.

“Keep your eyes on him, Connor, if you can. Discreetly,” Lyle said lowering his voice. “I will talk to you tomorrow, I have to come back early in the morning.”

“Don’t worry,” Connor assured him. “I will keep my eyes open and I will try to get as much information about this timeline as I can.”

The man who had been sent to drive him to the safe house wasn’t a very talkative guy and Lyle was grateful for that; he had too much on his mind right now to put up with a polite conversation about the weather or traffic problems. They arrived shortly at a rather ordinary-looking block of flats, about 20 minutes away from the ARC. At least, Lyle thought, they weren't planning to send him far away just yet.

The man, who hadn’t even bothered to tell him his name, went with him to the front door of one of the flats and handed him the keys. Before he went back to the car he reminded Lyle that he was supposed to be ready at 7 a.m. the next day and that somebody would pick him up and bring him to the ARC. He didn’t elaborate on what would happen then, and nobody back in the ARC had taken the time to tell him, but Lyle didn’t have great expectations about that; there was probably just going to be more questioning.

Lyle finally let his irritation take over him and with a grunted “Goodnight” he slammed the door in the guy’s face. Then he took a deep breath and looked around. The place was spartan, but there weren’t prehistoric creatures lurking around so it met his requirements. There was also a bed, a shower and a fridge with some basic supplies. “Very basic,” Lyle thought taking a look inside, because there wasn’t beer at all, just a few bottles of mineral water.

“Nothing is perfect.” Lyle said to himself and started stripping, heading for the bathroom.

The warm shower helped a lot to ease his sore muscles, but it wasn’t enough to calm his mind. Timeline changes and other creepy thoughts were relegated to second place since all his focus now was on Oliver Leek and the threat he implied or could imply. But Lyle was too tired and he knew he wouldn’t make any sense of it right now, so he just let himself fall on the bed and closed his eyes wishing for some dreamless hours of sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

Lyle at least managed to sleep for a few hours. He wouldn’t say it was a dreamless sleep, but his mind was so restless and hazy that he couldn’t remember anything clearly the moment he opened his eyes in the morning.

He got out of bed slowly and stretched. His muscles were sore, but a few hours of good rest had made the strain go away. Unfortunately the uneasiness was still there. Even if now he was able to think more clearly, Lyle still felt disoriented about this place he was supposed to accept as his world. And also there was the more urgent problem of Leek still being around.

Lyle rummaged around and found a few clothes neatly folded in the wardrobe. Fortunately there were some jeans and a black t-shirt among them since there was no way in hell he was going to wear any of the suits that were hanging there and his fatigues were probably beyond recovery. They were in a heap on the floor, where Lyle had thrown them carelessly the night before. James always got so mad when he did that, he remembered with a deep sense of sadness.

Lyle got dressed and went to the small kitchen, where he hoped he would find something passable for breakfast. He wasn’t disappointed: there was milk, bread for toast and even butter. Chewing slowly at the toast, Lyle analysed his situation carefully and by the time he had finished breakfast he had already decided what he was going to do. Waiting and staring had never been his usual tactics and now wasn’t the time to change that.

Lyle got the plan started quite quickly. The man who had been sent to pick him up arrived on time, in 20 minutes they arrived at the ARC and 30 minutes later he had kicked up such a fuss that Lester had to come in person to talk to him.

“They have told me you refuse to cooperate any further until there is a formal approval of your immediate reinstatement to the ARC security team. Is that correct?” Lester asked as soon as he sat down.

“Yes, exactly.”

“And why should I allow a total stranger into my team, Mr Lyle?”

“Because I already know about the anomalies and because I have been working in the team for years,” Lyle explained, feeling relieved after Lester just confirmed that it was still his team and that he was the one taking the decisions. “The fact that I have managed to keep Connor alive and bring him back should prove that I’m good at this job. I can’t see the point in keeping me out, spending all my time talking to pen-pushers.”

Lyle regretted it as soon as the last word left his lips. He was just referring to the workers of the Ministry, not to Lester himself, but it didn’t sound like that at all.

“Well,” Lester answered without a blink, “keeping Mr Temple alive is definitely a difficult task, but, if I recall correctly, there were three soldiers in your team that weren’t so lucky.”

Lyle gritted his teeth and said nothing. There was nothing to answer to that, he had lost three good soldiers and he didn’t even know if they had families in this reality that should be informed about their deaths. He had forgotten that sometimes Lester could behave like a heartless bastard.

Some of Lyle’s angst must had shown on his face because something similar to regret appeared in Lester’s eyes for half a second, but before Lyle could be sure about that, Lester was already wearing his usual mask of indifference again.

“Your story about a different reality is firmly defended by Professor Cutter and Mr Temple and I can assure you that your experience and dedication to the team, which have been corroborated enthusiastically by Mr Temple, are going to be taken into serious consideration. Once all the remaining inquiries have been completed and the admission paperwork filled out,” Lester emphasised the last part, smirking, “I suppose you will join the team on probation.”

“Probation?” 

“Well, yes, Mr Lyle, on probation. You might have years of experience in your ARC team, but it will be the head of the Special Ops Team, Captain Ryan, who will decide if you are fit to be part of our ARC team. After all, as you have pointed out, there are some considerable differences between the world you know and this one.”

“Yes, there are a few,” Lyle admitted with a sense of sadness. He took a quick look at Lester’s hand and then he realised the ring wasn’t there. He was absolutely sure yesterday the fucking ring was there because the sight of it had stung like hell, but now Lester wasn’t wearing one. It didn’t have to mean anything, Lyle tried to tell himself, Lester could have forgotten it at home that morning, for example. But instincts told him to cling to that missing ring, that it meant something, and he had learnt from experience to trust his instincts.

“I really hope they are not very inconvenient, Mr Lyle,” Lester added standing up. “My assistant will help you with the forms so you can start the process of reinstatement as soon as possible.”

“That would be perfect. I just want to help the team, sir.” Lyle stood up and held out his hand to Lester. He looked a bit surprised, but Lyle’s expression left no doubt about how serious that moment was for him.

“If half of what Mr Temple has told us is true, your contribution to the team will be very welcome,” Lester answered, shaking his hand.

It was harder that he expected to just shake Lester’s hand. James was right there, a few centimetres apart, and Lyle was just shaking his hand like a fucking businessman instead of savaging his mouth like he desperately had wanted to do since he came back. He was probably staring too intensely because Lester looked a bit puzzled, but then the door opened and Leek came in with some folders.

The same obsequious smile, Lyle thought with disgust, and it seemed he was still working as Lester’s assistant. Too many things were similar in this reality and he was not going to give the story a chance to repeat itself.

“I will need my hand back, Mr Lyle,” Lester said slightly amused.

Lyle then realised he had been crushing Lester’s hand since the moment Leek had entered the room.

“Of course.” A bit embarrassed, Lyle let go of his hand immediately, but he saw a glint of suspicion in Lester’s eyes.

“Then, if everything is clear,” Lester said opening the door, “I will leave you in the capable hands of Mr Leek so I can finally resume my many other duties.”

“Pleased to meet you, Mr Lyle,” Leek held out his hand as well and if this time Lyle shook Leek’s hand a bit harder than necessary, it wasn’t unintentional at all.


	5. Chapter 5

In the end the paperwork wasn’t too obnoxious and the probation term was reasonable. It was hard, but not too hard. Lyle felt much better when he saw that they were being fair, that they weren’t trying to make it more difficult so they would have an excuse to get him out of the way. He was allowed to visit Johnson at the hospital, but he had to be careful about what he said, since the doctors had advised them against telling him “sensitive information”. It seemed that Johnson hadn’t been so lucky in this reality: there was no record of him anywhere.

Since nobody could find his profile, when Johnson had regained consciousness they had asked him about his family and any other contact information he could give. Further investigation discovered that Johnson’s parents, who had been healthy and quite active for their age when their son had gone out on that expedition, in this reality had died in a car accident just a few months after their wedding. Therefore neither Johnson nor either of his two sisters had been born in this timeline.

Of course Lyle agreed that telling him all this information right now, when he had just undergone surgery, wasn’t a good idea, so he kept the conversation light and short.

His own mother had come to Lyle’s mind quite a few times since his return. When all the paperwork was done, they told him that she was going to be informed shortly that her son had been incorrectly declared dead because of a wrong identification and that he had spent this time detained by some hostile forces. “Good luck with that!” Lyle had thought. They didn’t know Julia Denton as well as him, or at least as well as he thought he knew her. He was going to be sure soon since there was no way in hell that the woman he knew would buy that lame story without further investigation; her investigative journalist's nose, retired or not, could smell a fake official cover from a mile.

Actually she had harassed so many people when she got the news and at such high speed, that Lyle had received a visit from a worried representative from the Ministry that same day to ask him to appease her and confirm the official cover. 

“Little ungrateful sod!” were the first words Julia spoke to him on the phone. “Your old mum had to learn that you were alive by a spineless civil servant babbling some nonsense?”

“Mother dearest,” Lyle answered with a big grin, “you know better than I do that there are proper channels that have to be used. I hope you didn’t scare the shit out of that poor guy.”

They kept talking for a long time, using that friendly bantering tone that Lyle was so used to and if in some moments he heard a sniffle or two on the other end of the phone, he knew better than to mention it to her. They arranged to meet for dinner and Lyle was sure that he had another questioning ahead, but that didn’t make the big grin disappear from his face at all.

The same grin was still on his face the next day when he went to see Lester. Lyle told him that they would be off the hook for now because he had smoothly dodged Julia’s merciless inquiry and made her promise to respect the secrecy of the operations. That only meant, of course, that they wouldn’t be investigated for a few weeks, until curiosity would take over, but Lester didn’t need to know that part.

Lyle saw Lorraine on his way out of Lester’s office and greeted her; he was really glad to see her still around. Some new faces aside, especially in the SF, the rest of the staff was people they knew, Connor had told him, but with a few noticeable differences.

“Leek seems to work in the same position he was before and he is as slimy as always,” Connor explained to him in one of his visits to the armoury, where Lyle had been assigned. “At least as far as I have seen, I don’t usually have the chance to spend much time around him. I have already used all the excuses I could think of to talk to him.”

“Don’t worry, Connor. Now that I can walk freely around I will keep my eye on him too,” Lyle reassured him. “I suppose he is still orbiting around Lester, isn’t he?”

“Exactly.”

“Some things never change,” Lyle said with a sneer.

“But some other things do change,” Connor said with concern.

“What do you know about Abby?” Lyle guessed that was what was worrying his friend; Connor had always felt insecure about his relationship with Abby, whatever it was. “Have you talked to her? When is she coming back?”

“They are still searching the local forest, making sure there aren’t more creatures around. It looks like there have been a few sightings of strange animals in the last few days,” Connor explained. “I talked to Abby on the phone.”

“And?”

“Well, she only said a few things, that she was glad I was ok, that she was dying to come back so I could tell her about the whole thing… But she didn’t say much aside from that,” Connor hesitated. “Has Ryan talked about Stephen with you? Are they still together here?”

“Ryan’s gay relationship with a colleague isn't a topic that has appeared in our chats, Connor,” Lyle explained, amused. “The man doesn’t know me at all so that’s not the kind of conversation we have had during hand-to-hand combat training.”

Lyle grinned, remembering the training. Ryan didn’t know him since they hadn’t met in the army, but Lyle remembered his fighting techniques quite well and he had thought it would give him an advantage. Unfortunately, this Ryan also knew new tricks and he had made him bite the dust quite a few times.

“Sorry, I suppose I shouldn’t complain so much,” Connor apologised sheepishly.

“It’s OK, lad, we will work this place out step by step,” Lyle assured him.

They had already finished work for the day so they headed together to the car park. They had got into the habit of going home together in Lyle’s car. That was another thing he should thank the office for: once they had established he wasn’t a threat they'd decided he didn’t need a chauffeur any more, but at least they gave him a rental car so he could move around on his own. Driving home together gave Lyle and Connor time to swap information and impressions and to plan how they were going to deal with the issue of Leek.

“I have heard that tomorrow you will finally be on the field team in case of anomaly alarm,” Connor said once they got into the car.

“Yes, finally! I hope you can manage the new equipment, I wouldn’t like to end up in a wild goose chase in the opposite direction,” Lyle teased, smiling.

“Don’t worry, there are a few modifications in the ADD, but it’s still my code and my idea, so it didn’t take long to find out how it worked,” Connor answered proudly.

“OK, then. Just keep your eyes on Leek when I’m not around, if you have the chance. If he is working with Helen they have to be in contact somehow. If we could just find out how they do it…”

“Shouldn’t we say something about it to Lester? Or Ryan?”

“We haven’t got any proof, not even any suspicious behaviour so far.” Lyle shook his head. “I don’t really know how they would take it and it could warn Leek that we know he is a traitor. I think we should be cautious.”

“It’s just that I have the feeling we should be doing something,” Connor said worriedly. “Like throwing him into a cell and losing the key, for example. Just in case.”

“It sounds like a good idea to me,” Lyle smiled; it was very hard for him to follow his own advice. “But we will keep that as plan B for now.”

They had already arrived at the flat Connor shared with Abby. It looked like their old place, at least from the outside, and Connor had told him the inside was more or less like it was before.

“Are you resisting temptation yet?” Lyle asked. Connor had told him on the first day that he didn’t want to rummage through Abby’s things because it felt like spying on her.

“Yes, I am.”

“Always a gentleman?”

“Of course!” Connor answered closing the car door. “I’m a gentleman and smart enough to know that Abby would kill me if she finds out. And believe me, if this Abby is only a bit like my Abby, she would find out.”


	6. Chapter 6

Once he left Connor at home, Lyle headed for his flat. At least he could have sworn that had been his intention, so that’s why he was quite surprised when he realised that he had headed for the ARC instead. It seemed that his damn subconscious had decided to act on his own this time.

Lyle knew he should follow his own advice and be cautious, but that had never been his most outstanding skill and to be honest, it hadn’t got them anywhere so far. So he parked the car near the exit of the ARC car park, far enough so he wouldn’t be seen, but close enough to watch the cars leaving the place, and he waited patiently for Leek’s car to appear.

Lyle knew it could be a waste of time – after all Leek could have already left – but he felt better waiting in the car for a chance to follow Leek than going back to his empty flat. There he usually ended up musing on Lester while staring at the wall, like a lovesick teenager. That was not like him at all, he was a proactive man, but even if he had thought about it a lot, he hadn’t come up with a good way of making a pass at Lester, one subtle enough so he wouldn’t end up fired or accused of sexual harassment. Subtlety wasn’t his thing either.

Lyle had been able to check Lester’s hand a few times and had seen that he wasn’t wearing a ring any more, but even if that meant what he wanted it to mean, Lyle doubted that Lester would welcome the advances of an almost-unknown soldier during working hours. Lester had always been very strict about work, Lyle remembered with a smile, and had tried to act all professional and distant while they were at work. Of course, the fact that he worked in a glass cage, in a building full of people that wandered around a lot, had helped them to be quite restrained. Fortunately there were also a few storage rooms and Lyle was rather convincing when he wanted to be. It got him a few half-hearted complains about dirt and expensive suits, between moans and heated kisses, but in the end James too had to admit that it was a great way of dealing with stress.

That probably wasn’t the best train of thought during a stakeout, Lyle thought, feeling his trousers becoming uncomfortably tight; he was supposed to be focusing on his task, not on his memories of Lester. Talk of the devil, Lyle thought when he saw Lester’s car leaving the ARC. Lyle wondered if Lester’s flat still looked the same or if he even lived in the same place at all, and he had to fight the urge to forget Leek and follow Lester. He didn’t have to fight long, though, because just as soon as Lester’s car had left the building, Leek’s car appeared not far behind. Lyle waited a few moments and then followed him carefully.

Not much later Lyle was sitting in the car feeling quite disappointed. In the end the evening hadn’t been very exciting or productive. Leek drove at normal speed, didn’t infringe any traffic laws and arrived safely at a block of flats in a quite luxurious neighbourhood where he supposedly lived. Well, Lyle thought, the only information achieved so far was that Leek had expensive tastes, but nothing really very useful.

The same thing happened the next day Lyle managed to follow Leek after work, and the next day and the next, and Lyle’s patience was running short by the day. The idea of cornering Leek and hitting his head against a wall until he confessed all his secrets was growing stronger. It looked like he was wasting his time and that was eating him up, but, as Lyle discovered when he got home one evening and got crushed against his front door, looks could be deceiving.

The guy that had sneaked into his apartment was keeping his nose crushed against the cheap wooden door thanks to a basic but effective armlock. The guy was strong and careful – Lyle hadn’t even noticed he was there until the stranger attacked him – but an armlock wasn’t going to end the game now that it was starting to be interesting, Lyle thought while changing the weight of his body to the left leg.

Just when he was about to make his move, Lyle heard steps coming out of the kitchen.

“Even though I hate repeating myself,” Lester said not sounding very happy, “I will do it this time. Mr Lyle, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

Lyle’s attacker moved him away from the door and although he was still been held firmly in place, Lyle could finally take a good look around: Lester was now standing in the hall, arms crossed and a deep frown on his face.

“We trusted you to be part of our team and as soon as we gave you a free pass you started spying on one of my employees,” Lester said coldly. “That doesn’t look like something an honest man would do so could you explain to us, Mr Lyle, what are your intentions?”

“I was just trying to make sure everything was OK,” Lyle tried to explain, “that the ARC wasn’t in danger.”

That got him Lester’s patented raised eyebrow.

“I can assure you that we take care of the safety of our installations and staff diligently, we don’t need anybody else to do it for us.”

“That sounds great, but maybe you haven’t considered all the possible threats. Have you thought about the danger a traitor could be to the team? Because I have seen it, and it wasn’t pretty,” Lyle replied. “In my reality, Leek was a traitor who worked for Helen and caused a great deal of damage.”

Lester just smirked at that.

“I just wanted to know if Leek was a traitor here too,” Lyle tried to explain again, “if there was any clue that bound him to Helen, before saying anything.”

“Treason is a very serious charge. Have you found anything that would back up that accusation?” Lester asked.

“Well, no,” Lyle admitted. “I haven’t had many chances to investigate; maybe they are being very careful.”

Lyle had to admit that it sounded like a weak excuse even to his own ears.

“Oh, they are being very careful, Mr Lyle,” Lester answered, “but not as much as Helen thinks.”

Lyle gaped and Lester seemed quite amused at that.

“So they are working together? Leek is working for Helen?” Lyle finally managed to say. “And you know it and you still let him walk freely around?”

“Yes and no,” Lester answered. “Helen Cutter approached Mr Leek with some evil plans and he, fulfilling his duties as a civil servant, told us everything so we could decide the best plan of action.”

Lyle knew the shocked expression on his face had to be quite amusing because Lester had to hide a smile, and that didn’t happen often lately.

“We decided that it was more useful to have an inside man in Helen’s plans, a double-agent if you prefer, than to just try to capture her. That woman is slippery like a squirrel; she has escaped from us quite a few times already. She also seems to have important contacts, people who give her information, technology and resources and we need to locate them.”

“For all these reasons, Mr Lyle,” Lester added, making a sign to his attacker, who let go of Lyle’s arm, “the identity of Mr Leek as a double agent is known only by a very short list of people, including Captain Ryan and me. And we would like to keep it that way.”

Lyle rubbed his arm and looked at Ryan. He hadn’t moved too far away from him and if he wasn’t mistaken, the bulge under Ryan’s jacket was a gun, which meant he would still be in trouble if Ryan thought he was a threat.

“Now why don’t we bring this conversation to a more comfortable place and you tell us what you know about this issue? Or at least, what you think you know,” Lester said, walking towards the sitting room.

Lyle looked at Ryan before following Lester and nodded seriously. He just meant “I understand, I don’t mean trouble”; he hoped Ryan understood it. Lyle turned his back on him, not waiting for a reply, and followed Lester into the sitting room.


	7. Chapter 7

Lyle explained everything he remembered in detail, everything about Leek, Helen and the day when they had finally realised that he had been playing with them. When Lyle explained the last-minute rescue of Stephen and the long time it took his friend to recover from his injuries he saw Ryan flinch. 'I guess Connor doesn’t need to worry about Abby and Stephen,' Lyle thought.

He finished the story with Leek’s death, trying not to sound too happy about it, and then he just stared at Lester and waited.

“I can understand your distrust of Mr Leek, given your past experiences,” Lester started after a short pause. “But if you had communicated your suspicions to us sooner, we could have clarified everything from the start. I suppose that Mr Temple can corroborate everything you have just said.”

“Yes, you can ask him about it, if you want.”

“Oh, Mr Lyle, I don’t want to do it, but I will have to talk to him anyway since he also has to explain why he has been hacking Mr Leek’s computer and some other systems.”

“He was just trying to find a clue about Helen.” Lyle tried to defend his friend, but Lester looked quite unimpressed by his words. “But, well, he will explain it to you when you ask him.”

“Yes, unfortunately Mr Temple will use quite a lot more words and a lot of babbling to get to the point,” Lester sighed and stood up. “Considering the circumstances, Mr Lyle, I hope you understand that you will be confined to desk duties until we can confirm, well, as many things as we can.”

“So you can keep me under surveillance too, I’m guessing,” Lyle said flatly. “I understand. Just one question.”

Lester paused and turned, questioningly.

“Who has discovered me?” Lyle would be mortified if Leek was the one who had noticed it.

“As I have already told you, Mr Lyle, we take good care of the safety of our team and that includes Mr Leek. His mission is very important, we wouldn’t have left him unprotected.”

Without further explanation, Lester opened the door and left, but Lyle saw a little smirk appearing on Ryan’s face before he turned to go.

~*~

The consequences weren’t too harsh, all things considered, but knowing he was constantly under surveillance made Lyle feel very uncomfortable. To be able to do his job he needed to trust his workmates and they needed to trust him and he didn’t feel very trusted right now. Lyle did understand the situation, but still it made him consider other options. He could still ask to rejoin the army – it would be better than staying around getting suspicious looks from Lester and Ryan and sheepish little smiles from Leek. And definitely it would be better than constantly checking his boss’ hand to see if there was a ring on it or not. He was quite sure that Lester had caught him staring at his hand more than once, but well, it wouldn’t have been as bad as if he had caught him staring at his arse, which he did quite often too, to be honest. That was probably one of the best reasons why he should go.

Connor would be OK, he was essential to the team and after an official reprimand from Lester, he had just got his ears tweaked for the hacking issue. Abby was coming back the next day and they could work everything out together. Connor would be fine without him and so would the ARC team. Which led him to the next person involved: soldier Johnson had been discharged from hospital a few days ago and he had said he wanted to come to the ARC to say goodbye. It seemed that Johnson had come to the same conclusion and had decided to leave the ARC.

Lyle found him standing uncomfortably in the middle of the hall of the ARC. Lyle could understand his situation. Even if he had already been informed about the alternate reality where they were living now, it was one thing to hear about it and another very different thing to experience it, to stay in your old workplace surrounded by people you knew but now looked at you as if you were a total stranger, because, well, for them, you were a total stranger.

Johnson seemed truly happy to see him and greeted Lyle effusively.

“It’s good to see you are OK, pal,” Lyle said with a broad smile.

“Well, the doctors say I still need some time to recover completely, but there was no point in staying longer in the hospital. I thought I would be better-” Johnson stopped in mid-sentence and his smile faltered, “well, out of the hospital.”

Lyle knew he meant at home, but Johnson was probably still starting to accept that there was no home to come back to. If he recalled correctly, Johnson was married to a lovely Irish girl and he had lost her too since if he hadn’t even existed in this reality, he would hardly have met her.

“We could go somewhere and have a drink,” Lyle suggested.

“My office would be perfect for that,” Lester said as he came closer. “After all I have a few documents on my desk that need your signature, Mr Johnson, before you leave us and I’m sure Lorraine will find us something to drink in the meantime.”

Lester headed to his office without waiting for an answer. Johnson looked at Lyle, a bit surprised, but he just shrugged and followed Lester and so did Lyle.

In Lester’s office Leek was arranging some papers on his desk, but as soon as they arrived Lester dismissed him. Leek excused himself with his usual nervous smile and Lyle wondered again how he could manage the job of double-agent.

Lorraine carried a few cups of tea, to Lyle’s dismay, and before starting on the official paperwork, Lester was kind enough to ask Johnson about his plans.

“Well, I still need some time to adapt to all this,” Johnson explained honestly, “but my priority is to find Megan again.”

“Your wife?” Lester asked and Lyle realised that he must have taken the time to read Johnson’s full statement.

“Yes, I know I have no family left,” Johnson admitted painfully, “but that doesn’t mean necessarily that Megan isn’t around any more, I just have to find her.”

Lester glanced at Lyle, but quickly turned to look at Johnson again.

“And do you have any idea about how you are going to locate her?”

“Well, I want to go to the small town where she lived when she was little and start from there, but I know it’s not going to be easy.” Johnson squeezed his hands. “I know there are many different possibilities: she could be married, she could have never been born, she could just not like me… It took me a lot of effort to convince her to date me the first time,” Johnson added with a smile. “But just because it will be difficult it doesn’t mean I won’t try. I love her deeply; the fact that she doesn’t know me yet doesn’t change that.”

“Very moving,” Lester said sipping at his cup. “Bordering on the obsessive, but maybe that’s true love, don’t ask me.”

Johnson looked thoughtfully at Lester and then turned his head to send a pitying look at Lyle, who almost choked on his tea. Lyle looked at Lester, who was staring at them with a serious expression on his face, and checked his hand. There wasn’t any ring on it, there was still a chance and hadn’t Johnson just said that that was all you needed if you cared enough? He looked back at Lester with a sad smile and started drinking the tea, really wishing it had been a good cold beer.


	8. Chapter 8

Connor had just decided to take a holiday when things started being interesting, but it was not as if Lyle himself was going to take part in the fun either. Abby and Stephen had already come back and Connor had finally discovered that Abby was still Abby after all. That had improved Connor’s mood incredibly, and now that Leek’s threat was over he had decided to take a few days off to rediscover the city with Abby by his side.

“I need to find out if my favourite comic shops are still open,” Connor said teasingly. “And the coffee shops.”

“I’m pretty sure Starbucks is still around, Connor,” Lyle teased him back. “Western civilisation wouldn’t have survived without it.”

Ryan was also visibly happier now that Stephen was back. It was not as if he smiled at him often, but he definitely didn’t glare at him so much. Improved mood or not, Lyle still wasn’t allowed into fieldwork so he was going to miss all the excitement of the hunt for Helen.

Leek had informed Lester that Helen was getting impatient and that she planned to move the creatures from her secret hideout. Leek was worried she could have received a tip-off since he suspected Helen might have more moles in the ARC, but he hadn’t been able to confirm it. After briefly weighing up the pros and cons, Lester’s superiors had ordered the immediate capture of Helen Cutter, before she disappeared again. Leek had set up a meeting with Helen and the SF had got ready for the tough task.

Lyle was informed of all that when he was kindly offered a seat in the conference room where the whole operation was going to be monitored.

“After all your troubles, Mr Lyle, and considering you had already experienced something like this, I thought it would be rude not to include you.”

“I really hope this is nothing like the last time,” Lyle answered with a grimace.

The SF had even got ready a few trucks in case they managed to track the warehouse where Helen was keeping the creatures. Leek himself had organised a small and discreet transport fleet, following Professor Cutter’s recommendations about the safety of the creatures, that would be able to move around without gaining any attention.

Stephen and Professor Cutter had of course insisted on going with the soldiers, but that had been immediately forbidden by Lester, and Captain Ryan had firmly supported his decision. This had probably gained him a very nasty private conversation with Stephen, and Lyle didn’t envy him that, but even if his mood was still quite gloomy, Stephen looked like he finally had accepted the decision and he was sitting on a chair in the conference room, looking quite tense. Professor Cutter, on the other hand, although he had been partially placated by Ms Lewis’ good reasons and Ryan’s threat of tying him up in his office until everything ended, was still too upset and had refused to go to the conference room. Considering he couldn’t see Ms Lewis in the room, Lyle supposed she had decided to babysit Professor Cutter, just in case. He had always thought she was a smart woman.

Lyle had been pacing the room for a few minutes before he had finally found a comfortable corner from where he could see the big screen. He was sat on the corner of a sideboard, with one foot resting on the conference table, and he had received more than one disapproving look from Lester, but Lyle couldn’t care less: his thumbs had started pricking again and he had the feeling the mission wasn’t going to be as easy as they had said.

Ryan had tried to calm a very nervous Leek down, going over the plan a few times until Ryan was sure he had got it right before he left. Leek’s part wasn’t very difficult, but he looked a bit overwhelmed by the situation. Ryan reminded him he just had to go to the arranged meeting place and give the signal to the SF team, which was going to be already deployed and hidden, once he verified that Helen was in the building, and then hide in the lower floor until the whole operation was over. Easy peasy.

A few hours before the appointment, Ryan and the rest of the team went to take their positions around the meeting place and later an apparently much calmer Leek took his car and headed the same way. Lyle watched him go and then went to the conference room, where he started to rub his thumbs, hating the fact that he couldn’t be there with the team. He also would have loved to have the opportunity of pointing his gun at Helen’s face and see her conceited smile disappear, but, well, Lyle hoped the quality of the video was good enough to let him see the details.

Lester had already made clear that this wasn’t a movie projection and that the cameras were there just to get visual data of the operation, so the soldiers who were carrying them weren’t going to move around looking for the perfect angle, but either way everybody’s eyes were fixed on the split screen that showed the video recorded by the two cameras. It was hard to see anything clearly since the soldiers were still hiding, but they had got a glimpse of the recently abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of the city where Helen had set the meeting.

They all knew Helen was an excellent tracker and they had been very careful about setting their positions. Still, it was hard to tell if they had been successful when they didn’t even know which way Helen would come from. Her ability to travel through the anomalies was one of the many reasons to capture her.

After what felt like a long wait, one of the cameras turned to Ryan, who signalled that the moment was close; it looked like Leek had finally arrived at the place. Everybody in the room tensed as the cameras started moving when the soldiers changed slightly their position, preparing for action. An endless minute later, they received Leek’s signal and started moving towards the warehouse as fast as possible.

All the movement was making it almost impossible to see anything clearly from the conference room, and the radio communications weren’t very helpful, since the soldiers had been instructed to reduce them to the minimum, but they could see they were about to come into the warehouse. The cameras steadied a bit, the images turning darker, and in the left part of the screen Lyle thought he had caught a glimpse of Leek’s skinny shape, but then the images disappeared.

Both screen parts had turned black, lacking a signal, and the audio communication had gone silent too to everybody’s surprise. Somebody checked the equipment, but it was soon obvious that there was nothing wrong with it; they had just lost all the signals coming from the team. Stephen was up in a blink and he headed towards the door glaring daggers at Lester.

“Hart!” Lester shouted, not being in a good mood either. Stephen turned to him ready to pick a fight and Lyle took a step forward wondering if he was about to become a referee in a very ugly fight, but Lester just took a deep breath and looked around, seeing some rather confused faces looking at them.

“Take the other team to the warehouse and report the situation,” Lester said to Stephen. “I’m sure it’s just some technical problem, but we don’t want to leave anything to chance.”

Stephen went away without a word and Lester turned his attention to the rest of the staff.

“Now, everybody go back to your jobs and keep all the communication channels open so we can get a word of what is actually happening. And you, Mr Lyle, where do you think you are going?”

While everybody was scattering out of the conference room, Lyle had taken his jacket, ready to follow Stephen, but Lester seemed to have a problem with that.

“This is an emergency, sir,” Lyle answered. “I’m going to join the team and go to the location.”

“No, Mr Lyle, you won’t. You probably remember that you are not allowed into fieldwork and you will probably be needed more here anyway.”

“But, that’s-” Lyle started protesting.

“There is no need for more men in that team, especially considering we don’t know yet if there is an emergency,” Lester insisted angrily. He was in a terrible mood and Lyle knew he wasn’t flexible about regulations even when he was in a good mood, but he wasn’t going to back down now.

Lyle was about to say something very colourful that he would probably regret later when Lester’s phone rang.

“Leek!” Lester said surprised when he saw the name on the screen.

Lyle froze, his intuition telling him that something was terribly wrong.

“What’s happening, Leek? We have lost the signal,” Lester asked immediately. “Is everything fine?”

Lyle couldn’t hear what Leek was saying, but Lester’s mood didn’t improve at all.

“But has Helen been captured?” Lester insisted. “Where is Captain Ryan? Are there casualties?”

“...”

“No, I have already told you that we have lost all the signals, we can’t see or hear anything. How has that happened?”

“...”

“Technology is fragile? What does that even mea-“

The sound of an explosion echoed in the ARC while debris and glass pieces flew around. Or maybe it wasn’t an echo, Lyle had time to think while he threw Lester and himself to the floor, because in that moment he could have sworn he had heard another explosion on the lower floor.


	9. Chapter 9

Lyle woke up with a terrible headache. It must have been a hell of a night if he felt that bad in the morning, he thought, although it wasn’t that bad if he was waking up to a sight like this: Lester was leaning over him, with his hair dishevelled and the tie knot half-undone. The only bad thing was that he looked too serious. Lyle wondered if he had made a mess somehow, but he still couldn’t remember anything clearly, only bits of a very depressing weird dream.

“I have always thought you look much better without a tie, darling.” Lyle thought that a compliment would help to ease the mood. “But you look much, much better without clothes at all.”

The compliment definitely didn’t get the desired effect since Lester’s frown only deepened.

“What’s the matter, sweetums? Don’t frown for too long or your face will get stuck like that,” Lyle added, taking hold of Lester’s neck and bringing him closer for a clumsy kiss.

That changed Lester’s frown to an expression of shock and Lyle tried hard to remember what he had done to make it this wrong, but all he could remember was more pieces of the weird dream in which Lester didn’t know him at all. Maybe it had something to do with the office, because it looked like they were in the office and Lester hated public shows of affection, but there was nobody else there. In fact, he was lying on the floor, partially under a table, which was quite odd. And why was there a strong smell of smoke?

“James?” Lyle was quite confused, but it was obvious that something was very wrong.

Lester’s face changed to the previous worried frown. He took the colourful and expensive handkerchief from his suit pocket and pressed it to Lyle’s head. The sharp pain it caused made Lyle yelp and he tried to move Lester’s hand away, but his movements were quite clumsy.

“You are bleeding,” Lester explained to him calmly. “Keep pressing this and I will go to get some help.”

Lester got up and headed for the door and Lyle tried to follow him, but as soon as he sat up the room started spinning. He leant back against the table leg, closing his eyes and taking deep breaths while pressing the handkerchief lightly against his head. By the time he felt the room become mostly still again and opened his eyes, Lester was coming back with one of the members of the medical team, who immediately started examining him.

Lyle then took a moment to look around. Even though his mind was still a bit foggy, he seemed to be able to think clearer now. There was shattered glass everywhere and some pieces of the ceiling had fallen over the big screen and the rest of the room. The conference room – now he remembered. They were watching the screen, there was a mission going on, something about Helen. He could hear the fire alarm and smell smoke. Of course it had something to do with Helen.

The medic was asking him something so Lyle tried to focus and pay attention, but then the man shone a light on his eyes and the headache intensified suddenly, making Lyle grab his temples to keep the brain inside his head. The medic was telling him something about concussion, but Lyle wasn’t paying much attention now because every piece of memory that was scattered in his head was falling into place and it all started to make sense again: there had been at least one explosion, probably a few more, just after they had lost all communications with Ryan’s team at the warehouse, which meant sabotage.

Lyle saw the medic talking to Lester, but he quickly left the room, probably to attend to other injured people. Lyle stood up carefully, putting the handkerchief in his back pocket, and faced Lester, feeling a bit uncomfortable. He wondered if Lester would buy the concussion-caused- amnesia excuse.

“How bad is the situation?” Lyle asked directly.

To his credit, Lester just blinked once before answering: “There were explosives in four areas of the ARC and they were detonated almost simultaneously. Fortunately the explosives weren’t too powerful and the firefighting system prevented the fire from spreading, but we seem to have some problems in the menagerie.”

“Is there much damage?”

“We don’t know yet, but the biggest explosions were located there and in the computer server room. We have to check everything, we can’t let any of those creatures loose. Fortunately there are no casualties, although there are many injured people. Like you, Mr Lyle,” James added pointedly. “The medic has told me that you are concussed and that you need to rest.”

“You are not really thinking that I’m going to stay sitting here while there is an emergency, right?” Lyle asked incredulously. “Besides, that looks a bit unsafe,” he added pointing at the half-clinging ceiling. “Part of that could still fall and hit my head again.”

“Oh, no, Mr Lyle, the debris didn’t hit you,” Lester said nonchalantly. “By the time the big parts started falling we were safe under the conference table. A good quality wood, if you ask me, sturdy and elegant at the same time.”

“Then?” Lyle asked confused. “What happened?”

“You hit your head on the corner of the table when you were throwing us to the floor.” Lester answered. “As I have said: sturdy furniture.”

Lyle had to stop himself from rolling his eyes because his head still ached.

“Don’t worry, Mr Lyle, it was still a very heroic gesture. But now,” Lester said getting serious again, “you have to take it easy. Medical instructions.”

“Still, I’m not staying here doing nothing. I can help,” Lyle insisted.

Both of them were quite stubborn and the discussion looked like it was going to be long and pointless, but just then they heard a cry for help and they both ran to the hall. Well, Lester ran to the hall, Lyle just tried to walk steadily as fast as he could.

Obviously the damage in the menagerie had been bad enough to make the security system fail, because Lorraine was cornered in her office by what looked like a hyaenodon and if the frantic shouts they could hear coming from other places in the ARC were any indication, there were more creatures on the loose. Fortunately Lorraine was a resourceful woman and she was managing to keep the creature at bay with a desk chair. The situation again proved that the money spent on good quality furniture had been a sound investment, because the metallic chair was the only thing keeping the hyaenodon’s jaw from catching her.

“What can we do?” Lester whispered to Lyle.

There really wasn’t much time because Lyle could see Lorraine was getting tired and the creature didn’t look like it was about to give up.

“We will have to improvise a bit,” Lyle said while he moved toward the opposite side of the office. “Hey, ugly dog, here!”

“Lyle!” Lester shouted when he saw Lyle attracting the creature’s attention.

And it was working. The hyaenodon saw another prey, a weaker one that smelled of blood, and left the tenacious one alone to go after him. Lyle saw the creature coming his way and grabbed a chair.

He never got the chance to know if this was also a good quality chair, though, because fortunately Stephen chose that moment to appear, gun in hand, and shot the creature, which collapsed at Lyle’s feet. With a relieved sigh, Lyle put the chair back down and smiled gratefully at Stephen, who nodded to him. When Lyle turned to a slightly shaky Lester, though, he didn’t find a very grateful expression. In fact, the frown he saw on Lester’s face was probably one of the worst he had seen in a long time. Fortunately for him again, Lester just turned to Stephen and started questioning him.

“How is the situation, Mr Hart?” Lester asked.

“Some cells have been badly damaged, but fortunately only a few dangerous creatures have escaped.”

“Lucky me,” Lorraine muttered.

“We have everything under control for now. We have trapped the creatures that escaped in different secured locations,” Stephen assured them. “But since we don’t know for sure how much more damage was caused to the structure of the menagerie, we have thought the best option would be the evacuation of the creatures to a safe place.”

“OK, then,” Lester said, “we don’t want more creatures wandering around. We do have enough work to do evacuating the injured and the rest of the staff. Take the vehicles that were going to be used for Helen’s creatures; they are equipped for this after all.”  
“Nick is already at it,” Stephen replied.

“It’s good that you decided to let me know,” Lester thanked him sarcastically. “Any news about the SF team at the warehouse?”  
“I managed to contact Ryan by phone,” Stephen answered sounding deeply relieved. “They are all OK, but Helen gave them the slip again. It looks like the place had some kind of security system that blocked any signal inside and that’s why we lost all communications.”

“Well, gentlemen, enough talking, we have a job to do,” Lester said firmly, “and yours, Mr Lyle, is to rest, because obviously you have suffered some kind of brain damage.”

“I just feel a bit dizzy, that’s all,” Lyle protested, but he didn’t seem to convince Lester, who turned to Lorraine.

“Lorraine, could you please make sure Mr Lyle follows the medical instructions and gets some rest.”

“I have said I’m OK!” Lyle insisted while he was being firmly guided to a couch by Lorraine.

“Among other things, you thought that playing bait was a good idea,” Lester pointed out.

“I had the situation under control, I had a chair!” Lyle answered stubbornly.

“Definitely some kind of brain damage,” Lester muttered.


	10. Chapter 10

It wasn’t until all the creatures and injured had been evacuated that Ryan and the team arrived at the ARC. They had made a quick search of the area around the warehouse, trying to find at least a trace of Helen, but since they couldn’t find anything, they had come back to the ARC as soon as possible. Stephen had told Ryan about the situation in the ARC, assuring him that they were taking care of it, so when they finally arrived, Ryan sent the rest of the team to help to secure the ARC and evacuate the rest of the staff and he went directly to see Lester.

Lyle saw him crossing the hall toward Lester’s office from his place on the couch, where Lorraine had been watching him like a hawk. It took him a bit of effort and good manners, but finally he managed to convince Lorraine to let him go, assuring her that he was feeling OK. And it was true, partially. He felt steadier and could walk without problems, but the painful headache was still bugging him. He went into Lester’s office followed closely by Stephen, who looked quite eager to see Ryan too.

“… I’m sure your team did its best, Captain,” Lester was saying to Ryan when they came in. “I know Helen is slippery and very smart. She probably knew that we were going after her today. What I want to know is if she has had something to do with what has happened here and anyway, I want to know how this has occurred in the first place. We are very lucky that nobody died here today.”

“It has to have been somebody in the inside, sir” Ryan answered. “It looks like Leek was right about there being another mole in the ARC.”

“By the way, where is Leek? Why is he not here?” Lester asked frowning.

Ryan looked a bit surprised by the question. “He left way before us, sir. There was no need for him to stay in the warehouse so he took his car and came back here. Hasn’t he arrived yet?”

Lester sighed deeply. “No, captain, he hasn’t. Or at least he hasn’t reported to me yet. He might be around – as you can see we have a bit of a mess on our hands at the moment. Could you send somebody to look for him?”

Ryan just nodded and Lester looked around with a weary expression.

“There is a lot to be done yet, Captain. I will let Stephen explain to you the details of the situation, since there are some phone calls I have to make,” he added with a grimace. “I know there are some people in the Ministry who want to speak to me right now.”

When he saw Ryan and Stephen leaving the room together, Lyle wondered if Lester had given them a moment in all that chaos on purpose, instead of monopolising Ryan, although the Ministry people wanting to yell at him didn’t sound like an excuse at all. Lyle turned to look at Lester and saw that he was eyeing him thoughtfully.

“It looks like this time it didn’t work much better, did it, Mr Lyle?” Lester said seriously.

“Nobody has died today, sir,” Lyle replied. “I consider that a much better attempt.”

“True,” Lester admitted, “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make a few phone calls.”

He picked the phone on his desk and put the receiver up to his ear.

“Of course,” Lester rolled his eyes, putting down the phone. “The line doesn’t work.”

The approaching sound of heels announced Jenny’s presence a moment before she entered the room.

“We have a problem, Lester,” she said waving her phone.

“Another one, you surely mean, Ms Lewis,” Lester replied flatly, but Jenny didn’t seem to be in the mood for technicalities.

“We have lost the trucks with the creatures,” Jenny explained. “The soldier that was watching one of the trucks has reported that the driver attacked him and tried to kill him. He managed to stop him and that truck has already been secured, but we have tried to contact the others and we have got no reply so far.”

Just as she had finished her explanation, Cutter came into the office, looking quite worried.

“Ryan and his men have taken the vehicles to track the transports,” Cutter said immediately. “Stephen has gone with them and will let us know as soon as they discover something.”

“The day keeps getting better and better,” Lester said rubbing his temple. “How many trucks are missing?”

“Five,” Cutter answered. “But they aren’t full. We decided to evacuate only the damaged cells of dangerous creatures and others that could cause big trouble. Most of the herbivores are still here.”

“The trucks aren’t easy to identify, they were designed to be discreet,” Jenny reminded them. “No special signs, no special number plate…”

“Yes, Ms Lewis, I remember that,” Lester stopped her. “It looked like a sensible idea at the time. In fact, it was Leek’s idea. He was the one who organised the transport and the vehicles…”

Lester started feeling in his pockets. “Where is my phone? There are a few calls I definitely have to make.”

“I have already phoned my contacts in Traffic and have given them a description of the trucks,” Jenny said. “I have told them that there is dangerous contaminated material inside and that they mustn’t be opened.”

“Somebody has found Leek?” Lyle asked, doing his best to ignore his headache, which was worsening by the moment.

Jenny and Cutter looked at each other and shook their head. From the hall they heard the ringtone of a phone and saw Lorraine in a hurry, bringing Lester’s ringing phone.

“I found it in the conference room, sir,” she said. “It’s Leek.”

“A video call, Mr Leek?” Lester asked coldly, holding the phone in front of him “How is it that you are not talking to me in person?”

“Oh, there is no need for me to come back to the ARC, sir,” Leek answered, nervousness totally gone from his voice and attitude. “This is just a polite call to tell you that I quit. Even though you could have already noticed it, I thought it was better to call to make it clear. After all,” Leek smiled mockingly, “you are not as smart as you all think you are.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Lester replied sarcastically. “And I suppose the explosives around the ARC were your goodbye note then? People usually send a letter of resignation, Leek.”

“Well, yes, but I needed to cause enough damage in the cells so you would feel the need to use the trucks, James.”

Lyle, who had come closer to Lester, could see the smirk on Leek’s face and felt his blood boil.

“In fact Mr Lyle’s story gave me the idea,” Leek continued. “Helen has never kept any creature, she works mostly as a technology trader. Rather simpler and more lucrative than dealing with living dangerous creatures, don’t you think? But since the ARC was already keeping them for us, why not use them when we could find a buyer?”

“Money, Leek? That’s the reason for all this?” Lester sounded honestly disappointed.

“Oh, you know me, James, I’m quite a simple man. Too simple to be dangerous at all, especially if I myself report having contacts with Helen Cutter and volunteer to spy on her.”

“I admit it was a smart move,” Lester said with an expression of disgust. “But you may not get all that you expect.”

“Oh, I know I probably won't get all the trucks, but I have already taken a few more things, to compensate any loss during the transportation,” Leek replied. “I have even considered the possibility of some of the drivers trying to trick us, so don’t you worry about me.”

“I won’t worry about you, Leek,” Lester said. “Because whatever comes to you, you will fully deserve it. And believe me when I tell you that it will be sooner than later because Helen will get tired of you soon, now that you can’t work as a double agent any more.”

“Yes, because from your point of view I have always been an irrelevant, worthless civil servant, haven’t I?” Leek asked.

“No, Leek, I have always thought that you were quite a nervous man, but an honest worker,” Lester answered bitterly. “But now you have just proved to me what a greedy little man you are.”

Lyle could see Leek’s furious expression before he hung up on Lester, but the satisfaction it caused wasn’t enough to make him forget the rest. He had given the idea of stealing the creatures to Leek and Helen, how wonderful was that? The ARC was upside down, there were many injured and the situation of the soldiers who were in the trucks was still unknown.

The headache beat so hard that Lyle had to close his eyes and rub his temples slowly, fighting the nausea. When he could open his eyes again, he saw they others were around him eyeing him worriedly.

“You don’t look well, Lyle” Cutter said resting a hand on his shoulder.

“No, definitely he doesn’t,” Lester said angrily, “because he is concussed, but he hasn't been resting like the doctor said he should. Hospital, now!” His tone left no room for discussion.

Lyle tried to complain anyway, but Lester stopped him as soon as he opened his mouth.

“There is really no more that you can do here, Lyle,” he said in a gentler tone, suddenly looking very tired.

Lyle had to give up at that point. He nodded and followed Cutter as he guided him to the lower floor. Tomorrow there were going to be loads of things to do and a sneaky bastard to catch.


	11. Chapter 11

Since Lyle lived alone in his flat, the doctors insisted that he had to stay the night in the hospital so they could keep him under observation, waking him up every three hours to ask him some silly questions. It wasn’t too annoying, he was used to sleeping fewer hours in worse conditions, but by the time the sun was rising he was already fed up and was dying to get out of the hospital. The more bored he got, the more he teased the nurse that came to ask him the questions. Lyle was quite sure he had shocked her a few times with some explicit anecdotes that were only slightly related to the questions.

He was waiting for the discharge when Ryan came into the room, looking quite exhausted, to bring him a bag with a change of clothes. Ryan informed him that three of the trucks were missing and that the bodies of the soldiers who were watching them had appeared on the road. The other two had been luckier; they had stopped their attackers before they could kill them, although the soldiers had been injured and had had to be hospitalised.

“We have recovered three trucks and the other three are still missing. Chances of finding the missing ones?” Lyle asked.

“It doesn’t look good,” Ryan admitted honestly. “Our best chance was to find them when they still were in the area, now they could be quite far or well hidden somewhere. We'll still keep looking for them, though.”

“And Leek?”

“No trace so far.” Ryan's expression darkened even more. “It looks like some of the explosives were located strategically so they would erase Leek’s last movements. The security recordings were almost completely destroyed. It’s hard to know what can be recovered.”

Lyle sighed. “It’s better to hear this kind of news with a beer in hand. Are there some beers in that bag, by any chance?”

That got him a smile from Ryan, and given the circumstances, Lyle counted that as a great achievement.

“No, Lyle, I think it’s not recommended for people who are still recovering from concussion,” Ryan answered. “And, anyway, it’s 8 am, isn’t it a bit early?”

“Sometimes it’s never too early for a beer, especially when it’s been a crappy day.” Lyle took a deep breath and rubbed his forehead. “I suppose Lester’s day isn’t going to be very shiny today either. I wonder if he has even gone home at all or if he still is in the ARC.”

Ryan sent him a slightly curious look when he mentioned Lester and Lyle suddenly remembered that, even if Ryan didn’t like talking too much, he was a very good observer.

“He has always spent a lot of time around the ARC anyway,” Ryan said eyeing him carefully. “And since his divorce, even more than usual.”

Lyle wasn’t able to hide the expression of relief that appeared on his face, and he didn’t care much. Ryan smiled at him and it took Lyle a lot of effort not to hug and kiss him effusively.

“Well, it’s time to go,” Ryan said getting serious again. “I only wanted to see if you were OK and tell you that I’m sorry I didn’t believe you when you warned us about Leek.”

“There was no way of knowing he was tricking us,” Lyle answered honestly. “He fooled me too. Again.”

“Anyway, thank you for your help,” Ryan offered his hand to him. “I’m glad that we have you on the team. We have to talk about other things, you know, but some other day, in a pub, with a beer in hand.”

“I will take you up on that,” Lyle said, shaking Ryan’s hand.

~*~

Once he was discharged, Lyle changed into the new clothes and put the dirty ones in the bag. That was when he saw Lester’s handkerchief sticking out from the pocket of his trousers, and he made up his mind. He took a cab and headed to Lester’s flat, hoping it was still the same address he remembered. If Lester wasn’t there, Lyle was afraid he would lose the nerve to face him some other day.

When he got there, Lyle straightened his back and rang the doorbell. A quite surprised Lester opened the door and suddenly Lyle realised he didn’t know what to say. He blinked and finally took out the handkerchief from his pocket.

“I have just come to give you the handkerchief back,” Lyle finally said.

It was a lousy excuse and Lyle knew he wasn’t fooling anybody, but hell, he had to start the conversation somehow.

Lester clearly decided to play along and motioned him to come into the house. It was more or less like Lyle remembered it and he was terribly happy to see that Lester still had the old couch, the most comfortable one he had ever tried. They had spent quite a few lazy evenings lying there, too tired to decide to move to the bedroom.

“Usually people give the things back once they have been cleaned,” Lester said, raising an eyebrow when he saw the handkerchief closely. “But I do appreciate your kindness, Mr Lyle, especially considering that you are on sick leave today, aren’t you? I have just come home to change and I’m leaving shortly, but can I offer you something? A tea?” Lester saw Lyle’s grimace and rolled his eyes. “A coffee, then. Make yourself comfortable, I will be back in a minute.”

As soon as Lester went to the kitchen, Lyle sat on the couch, leaning his head on the soft cushions and breathing deeply. That felt so much like his old life that he didn’t want to get out of the house ever. Even the smell of the room was the same he remembered.

“You take things quite literally, Mr Lyle.” Lester’s words woke him up with a start. He must have closed his eyes for a second and had fallen asleep, because Lester was sitting beside him with a mug of coffee in his hands, looking quite amused. “Maybe I shouldn’t have brought you a decaffeinated.”

“Well, in my defence I will say that it hasn’t been a good night and that this couch is really comfortable,” Lyle said.

“Thanks, I’m glad you like it,” Lester replied, handing him the mug. “But once again, Mr Lyle, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

Lester looked at him straight in the eye. “Sweetums? Seriously?”

Lyle choked on his coffee. He really didn’t know what to say. He realised a little too late that he hadn’t planned anything beyond meeting Lester in his flat, so Lyle did the only thing he could think of: he left the mug on the table, opened his mouth and told him the truth.

“Again in my defence, I will say that you were the one who started the war of pet names. Although you now don’t remember it, of course.”

“Of course,” Lester replied. “And then, am I right to suppose that you haven’t needed Connor’s hacking skills to find my flat?”

“Oh, no, I haven’t. I remember the address quite well,” Lyle answered. “Now I think it’s my turn to ask a question: how long have you been divorced? Because if I’m not mistaken the first day I got here I saw a very shiny ring on your finger.”

“A very personal question, Mr Lyle,” Lester said and it was Lyle’s turn to raise an eyebrow. Lester sighed, looking a bit uncomfortable, but he kept talking: “My marriage has been a long-distance friendship for quite a few years, but recently we decided to sign all the paperwork and make the divorce official. I’m just an old-fashioned man and I didn’t take the ring off until it was all done. Call me silly, if you want.” Lester straightened his back and looked at Lyle. “Anyway, it looks like you already know a lot of things about me. I’m surprised that you had to ask about this.”

It was Lyle’s turn to look uncomfortable.

“Not absolutely all the things are the same here,” Lyle explained. “I just wanted to be sure before I...” Lyle faltered for a moment.

“Before you started calling your boss “Sweetums”?” Lester suggested.

“You used to call me worse things,” Lyle replied with a sad smile.

They stared at each other in silence for a moment, neither of them really knowing what to say.

“This looks like a conversation that needs some time,” Lester said finally. He looked exhausted and by the sound of it he still had a very busy day ahead.

“Indeed,” Lyle agreed. “We haven’t even started talking about caving.”

“Caving?” Lester looked quite amused by that. “I’m really looking forward to that part of the conversation, but I really have to go. There is a meeting at the Ministry that requires my presence.”

Lyle started to stand up, but Lester motioned him to stay.

“You haven’t even finished your coffee,” Lester told him. “Please, take your time. We can continue this conversation later.”

“I would like that very much,” Lyle replied with an honest smile on his face. He leant against the couch again and yawned. “Good luck in the meeting. Just remember you are doing a good job. Watch your flanks and if it gets too nasty, kick them in the arse.”

“Thanks for the advice,” Lester said. “I will bear it in mind.”

Lester picked up his keys and his jacket and Lyle rested his head against the couch, relaxing for the first time in what felt like years. He was asleep by the time Lester closed the door.

-End-


End file.
